Skills for Care chief highlights inequalities

Skills for Care chief executive Andrea Rowe has attacked the far greater investment in developing new roles in the NHS than in social care.

Rowe said the NHS received £32m in 2005-6 to develop new roles, while Skills for Care received just £3m for the same purpose in social care, despite the comparable size of the workforces.

She said the disparity risked jeopardising the health and social care white paper’s aims of integrating the NHS and adult social care workforces and promoting personalised care.

Rowe said Skills for Care would tackle the issue as part of a sector skills agreement for social care in England, which it will develop over the next 18 months in partnership with the Children’s Workforce Development Council.